[HN Gopher] Ask HN: Where do you find potential customers to val...
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Ask HN: Where do you find potential customers to validate your idea
/ MVP?
Where do you find people to validate your idea / MVP and get
feedback from? I've been building something over the past year that
primarily scratches my own itch and I'm getting ready to use it
myself but I was wondering how I could see if other people are
interested in this as well. I've read about landing pages and MVPs
so that's kinda what I did: I've made something small, usable, that
solves a single problem with myself as my user persona (i.e.
scratching my own itch). The problem I'm running into now is that
I can't seem to gather any useful feedback and I don't know where
to get that feedback, or how to get it. There are a few people
registered on my site but none actually active enough for me to try
and reach out to them. How do you get feedback on your project /
MVP without spamming HN or reddit in the hopes that one or two
people leave a comment? P.S. A fiverr clone for product owners or
analysts might be what I'm looking for here.
Author : showsover
Score : 196 points
Date : 2021-03-31 08:02 UTC (1 days ago)
| mindcrime wrote:
| Start with your personal social circle, and/or 1st level
| referrals _from_ your personal social circle. It 's what Steve
| Blank calls "Friendly First Contacts". If you can't figure out a
| way to get useful feedback / sign of a reason to move forward
| from this group, then pivot or give up.
|
| The other option is "spend money to blast your thing to a wide
| audience and hope for the best." Buy Reddit ads, Facebook ads,
| LinkedIn ads, Google ads, whatever. The downside to this is: it
| costs money (potentially a lot) and doesn't generate necessarily
| generate quality feedback because the people you're targeting
| aren't invested in helping you.
|
| Also: read _The Four Steps to the Epiphany_ or _The Startup Owner
| 's Manual_.
| wiggumspiggums wrote:
| +1 for 1st level referrals. But folks within your own social
| circle can be tricky because it might be hard to figure out
| their true opinion if your idea sucks. When a friend has sought
| my feedback, I find myself balancing between trying to be
| honest with being supportive and open-minded. I'm sure people
| have done the same to me.
| mindcrime wrote:
| Agreed. That's one reason the 1st level referrals are so
| valuable. They represent people where you have a nice solid,
| warm introduction, but yet they aren't your personal friends,
| and won't necessarily feel the need to lie to you to protect
| your feelings.
|
| That said, I think part of the trick is to not just ask "do
| you think this idea sucks or not", but rather to ask probing
| questions that, in and of themselves, seem totally innocuous
| - but which will tell you if your idea has value or not.
| Figuring out how to that is part art / part science, and I
| can't claim to have completely mastered it myself either TBH.
| Still working on it...
| cmdr2 wrote:
| This worked better for me too, so far. But it may depend on
| what the OP is working on. I'm in a similar situation as the
| OP, and asked people I know if they know anyone in the target
| or related fields. And then further asked those people if they
| knew anyone, at the end of the call. I'm still in the middle of
| this process right now, so let's see how it goes.
|
| I don't ask if they think my product is a good idea. I ask
| questions about how they work, delve deep into the mundane
| details of their work, understand what the challenges are.
| Finally I make my own assessment of whether my product will
| truly be valuable to them. I do plan on pitching to some of
| them later, once I've a fairly good understanding of how my
| target users work.
|
| Importantly, I was clear with everyone (including my friends)
| that I wasn't selling or pitching anything, and that my goal
| was to understand how the target users work. The product idea I
| have is just the context explained in the first 2-3 mins, the
| rest of the call is just listening and understanding their
| workflow. The conversations usually tend to be 30 mins to 1 hr.
|
| +100 for 'Four Steps to the Epiphany'. All of what I did above
| was lifted straight from that book. I've been internalizing it
| for years, and still fail to follow it properly. It's an
| amazing book :)
| mindcrime wrote:
| _I don 't ask if they think my product is a good idea. I ask
| questions about how they work, delve deep into the mundane
| details of their work, understand what the challenges are.
| Finally I make my own assessment of whether my product will
| truly be valuable to them. I do plan on pitching to some of
| them later, once I've a fairly good understanding of how my
| target users work._
|
| I feel like that's the right way to do it. Those initial
| early calls aren't "sales calls" per-se, but depending on
| what you learn, you may well circle back to those people and
| try to sell them something later in the process.
|
| _All of what I did above was lifted straight from that book.
| I 've been internalizing it for years, and still fail to
| follow it properly._
|
| Same here. I have followed parts of it pretty closely at
| times, but it's hard to discipline yourself to stick to that
| more patient, rigorous approach sometimes. Too often I've
| been guilty of falling back into the conceit of thinking "of
| _course_ this is a good idea " and starting to build stuff
| just because I convinced myself. :-(
| hirokib wrote:
| Honestly for us (https://butterflylabs.gitlab.io/api-
| documentation) we just cold emailed a large number of folks we
| thought were our target demographic. Basically LinkedIn, look for
| product managers who are mid-level, and reach out. We got our
| first two customers from there on our MVP. The thing to keep in
| mind is if your MVP would solve a real problem, usually folks
| will be willing to try your solution because it's something they
| really need. Otherwise your product is just a nice to have and
| you're probably close to but not quite hitting the right problem
| spot.
| forgotmysn wrote:
| for B2B/Enterprise, investors or board members can usually open
| some doors
| jareklupinski wrote:
| advertise; once you have something you are ready to charge for,
| work with someone well-versed in sales and marketing to get your
| product's name out there in front of people who may pay for it
| martin-adams wrote:
| I'm going through this with the app I'm building in public. The
| things I've done that work well are:
|
| 1. Build in public--I'm using twitter heavily to share the
| journey, progress, etc. I've optimised my twitter profile to make
| it super clear what I'm doing. https://twitter.com/Martin_Adams
|
| 2. YouTube. I'm creating deep, genuinely helpful videos aimed
| directly at users who have a need and are searching for problem
| in the direct space my product fit in. I'm creating videos
| teaching how to use competitor products with an opportunity to
| introduce what I'm building. I don't think there's any platform
| as accessible to tap into active search results. Here's an
| example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6qfrRVUOO8
|
| 3. Funnel people to join your mailing list. I'm using ConvertKit
| and now averaging about 5 people per day just from the above two
| actions. My record is two days with 19 people dropping their
| email in. I have 124 people on my email list who are now
| interested and relevant to my project due to the YouTube content.
| My landing page is here: https://join.flowtelic.com.
|
| 4. Reply to other people on HN, Reddit, etc and try to be
| genuinely helpful with an opportunity to introduce what you're
| doing. This reply is an example of that.
|
| From there you can chat to people on Twitter and email your
| mailing list directly for feedback.
| suyash wrote:
| takes lot of courage to build in public, kudos!
| jcadam wrote:
| Yes, especially when you know its time to abandon a project
| because it's not getting any traction - after you've been
| telling everyone about it for months. Should keep in mind
| nobody else is going to think much about your failed project
| but you :)
| stevenhuang wrote:
| Looks like a great, well-polished note taking app.
|
| Especially like the simple pricing and no vendor lock in.
|
| Well done, might take this for a spin sometime.
|
| https://obsidian.md
| sebg wrote:
| Huge books/blog posts have been written about this. Maybe let's
| start with your product area and/or what it solves for you and we
| can help you from there?
| dyeje wrote:
| If you don't know where your potential customer are, do you
| really know the problem space well enough to build something?
| JamesBarney wrote:
| For OP: What is your product and who is your target audience?
|
| Generally ways you find users are
|
| outbound: find potential users then call/email them.
|
| Inbound: find out what your potential users are searching for
|
| Community: find online communities where your potential users
| hang out
|
| For other people besides poster who are earlier in this process.
| Figure out your marketing/sales/go to market strategy before you
| start coding.
| mdip wrote:
| The specifics of what you're product does will partly guide your
| approach, and I couldn't get enough information from the context
| to be sure that my advice will be appropriate, but I'll share
| what experiences I do have.
|
| First -- what are you looking for with regard to feedback? Are
| you looking for someone to tell you that your product solves the
| same problem for them, too? Are you looking to better understand
| the problem (and related problems) so that you know what to focus
| on after the Minimum part is over? Are you looking for someone
| who specifically has this problem to determine if there's any
| interest in even solving it (and/or to what that person might be
| willing to spend/do/put up with to have that problem solved)?
|
| These questions usually serve product design and the customers
| who are willing to take the time to give you these answers are --
| somewhat -- designing your product with you. If you want
| _comprehensive feedback_ , you'll need to incentivize[0] it. On
| the very high-end, there are companies who will put together
| focus groups for you; but they have to cost a fortune[1].
|
| My approach is to _pick up a phone_ (figuratively). Anything that
| I 've written with a target of selling, personally, has generally
| focused on solving a problem for a business that I frequent. I
| made an observation a while back that my dentist's scheduling and
| office management system was pretty terrible[2]; this being in
| the early days of the "maturity of text messaging" and my having
| built a self-service Kiosk application, I had some ideas and a
| strong working relationship due to weak enamel and a propensity
| to consume sugary beverages. I called him up and was surprised at
| how willing he was to talk my ear off about this problem. It was
| so encouraging, that I called a six other dental offices, left
| messages for dentists, and ended up receiving good feedback from
| about 10 individuals.
|
| I have the original script that I typed up with my list of
| questions, because I wasn't great "off the cuff" and _really_
| wanted to avoid sounding like a sales-person or telemarketer.
| "I'm a software developer in (city). While visiting my dentist, I
| had some ideas for writing a software application for dental
| office management. I'm not a dentist, so I'm seeking help from
| local dentists to understand if there's a way to write something
| that can reduce the amount of time dentists spend away from
| patients. If you have a few minutes and can help a guy out, I'd
| really appreciate it. Thanks!"
|
| I called and left that message with the receptionist being as
| ridiculously polite as I could; I heard ringing in the
| background, once, and said "I'm not a patient, so take that one
| and get back to me when you've had a moment to catch your breath"
| and sat on hold for 10 minutes... I called back a few days later
| about an hour before close and discovered (1) small dentists
| often employ husband/wife/mom/dad as office manager/reception
| part-time (2) oh...wow, one mom is _really_ helpful and doesn 't
| get _any_ crap for having a 2.5 hour conversation in the open
| lobby while processing customer payments, or for interrupting her
| daughter during a procedure to ask a question (I had no idea she
| would do this).
|
| For anyone wondering, no, I never wrote it. Shortly after
| researching, I had a visit to a specialist (sleep, not dental)
| who had a system in place that basically did everything I was
| looking to do, which took the wind out of my sails long enough
| for me to see my own dentist install a fingerprint
| reader/incredible setup over here shortly after the last failure
| of the server he had in his office. I was pleased to learn that
| he picked the setup he did because "it included checkin/checkout
| via touch screen kiosk" and "had a fingerprint reader"[3] based
| on the conversation I had with him. And it solved his problems
| and made the experience for me as his patient, better, as well.
| After using it, I kind of wish I had written it. :)
|
| [0] You can just outright pay someone, but I'm assuming that's
| not desired.
|
| [1] And a million who will send spam to you offering you money
| for your opinion. Anyone with an inbox is familiar with all of
| the scammy "Get Paid for your Opinion", but there are _real_
| companies out there -- I 've routinely participated in focus
| groups with Shiffrin-Hayworth and been paid an average $150/group
| (catered); their web site, Lord, looks fresh out of 1999, no SSL
| -- if my Mom hadn't referred me I'd have assumed they were a
| scam.
|
| [2] Especially when I visited one day while his tech guy was
| changing tapes in the tape backup due to an over-night server
| failure.
|
| [3] I mentioned "fingerprint reader" by accident when I talked
| with him about it early on but even before discussing with him, I
| had decided against it. I figured there's no way that thing isn't
| going to be sanitized _endlessly_ by random staff without regard
| for how the cleaner could affect the reader. I had many-a windex
| bottles emptied out on my keyboard (thank God for that Northgate
| Omnikey) from a well meaning mom trying to rub the dirt marks off
| of the spacebar /enter/arrow keys.
| peterwoerner wrote:
| I have just started trying to cold email/linked in message people
| who have the relevant job titles on linked in. I just started
| yesterday so I can't tell you how its going yet. But I'm looking
| for people at companies large enough to have people dedicated to
| a specific subsets of mechanical engineering.
| allochthon wrote:
| I have the same question as you. Two sources of _potential_
| feedback I 've found, which are not spammy or unpleasant for
| people:
|
| - Adding an update to an Indie Hacker product profile with a link
| to a blog post
|
| - Adding a post to the "Share Your Startup" thread in r/startups,
| which has been a thread that is started on the first of each
| month [0]
|
| But, in general, I have the same questions as you, so I don't
| imagine this will provide more than a small boost in feedback.
|
| [0]
| https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/?f=flair_name%3A%22Share%2...
| granshaw wrote:
| I'm not very experienced as a founder, but I put very low
| weight in audiences on sites like indie-hackers, r/startups,
| HN, product-hunt... it's a very specific kind of person who
| hang out there - mostly just tech and growth folks, and super-
| gung-ho-early-adopter types, who are a poor substitue for
| actual long-term customers
|
| I would say FB groups, subreddits, meetups around your
| potential customers' industry are a much better start.
| chdaniel wrote:
| A couple of things need to be balanced, I think, as I'm doing
| just that with PriceUnlock (https://bychgroup.com/price-unlock/)
|
| PriceUnlock will help SaaS owners finds the perfect pricing for
| their product, with more upside and less downside when trying new
| prices. Besides, it helps you stop leaving money on the table.
|
| * THE THINGS*
|
| 1. You can "scratch and claw", as Jason Cohen (founder of
| WPEngine) puts it. He talks more about this in the YT link below
| and he also puts out this idea of 150 customers, not "1000 true
| fans". I highly highly recommend watching the video, regardless
| of going VC/bootstrapped. He also talks about 2 other ways
| besides scratching and clawing
|
| https://youtu.be/otbnC2zE2rw?t=420
|
| 2. Building in public is an upward trend these days. Basically
| you share as many milestones/ups/downs about your journey of
| building it. This can be a trap as well: it only works if your
| audience is A) interested in you sharing that, B) probably
| hackers/builders etc.
|
| I asked PG about this and he pretty much summed it up:
| https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1375038728519974912
|
| 3. As I'm building PriceUnlock, you'll also notice that I'm
| collecting emails (the ol' way) to get people's interest. I don't
| want to make a mailing list, I want to build my product, so I'll
| aim to be better doing the second rather than the first. But it
| doesn't hurt to, as Rob Walling did with Drip, launch with some
| MRR hopefully... or at least with some interest.
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLay7kksLtc
|
| 4. The usual set of things hackers do when they launch their
| thing: ProductHunt, Betalist, etc. Don't forget to join my
| subreddit on https://www.reddit.com/r/saas if that's what you're
| building (SaaS is v popular these days, so anyone reading this is
| invited!)
|
| 5. This pretty much ties to point 1, but the scratching and
| clawing is just another way to put the age-old adage: help (the
| relevant set of) people so you get their attention, use that
| attention as 'free advertising' for your product. It doesn't get
| any better than this as it's not intrusive and at least it's a
| win-zero-sum-game, at best a win-win. That's how I built my main
| company into 5M+ users and that's what I can preach
|
| that said....
|
| 6. Deep down inside I thought what Jason Fried of Basecamp put
| best here. I'll let him say it:
| https://world.hey.com/jason/validation-is-a-mirage-273c0969
| Frodo478 wrote:
| Thanks! Checked every single link. And let me say that I was
| thinking using something like price-unlock in the future. I
| hope to see some updates on the project
| danenania wrote:
| Betalist is good for this: https://betalist.com/
|
| I'd also recommend spending the next 30 minutes putting together
| a very rough description and a mailing list sign up form, and
| then posting a comment in this thread with a link. Being on the
| front page of HN will get you hundreds to thousands of visitors,
| and it isn't easy, so don't miss the opportunity!
| riku_iki wrote:
| Such posts very rarely appear on front page, maybe 0.1% of
| them.
| adav wrote:
| Check out The Mom Test and find an audience to talk to first.
| Validate any idea long before you build an MVP. In my opinion
| it's two separate steps.
|
| I must admit I've also fallen in your trap many times myself.
| It's too fun to just go ahead and build something sometimes
| without considering the best way to find those early users first.
| suyash wrote:
| sounds like a cool mom, gonna check it out.
| vincentmarle wrote:
| I wish this book wasn't called the Mom Test, people I've
| recommended it to didn't take it seriously because of that. But
| it's definitely one of the best books ever written on problem
| validation.
| adav wrote:
| I had also previously dismissed it because of the stupid name
| (...and it should be Mum Test if anything...) but luckily my
| friend insisted that I read it.
|
| I often skim the crib sheet on the last few pages to remind
| myself of the goodness within.
| bbulkow wrote:
| i once had a vc, during a pitch, who asked if i could sell to
| her mom. As it was database infrastructure, it seemed kinda
| wrong, but it turns out her mom owned a small business and was
| the primary tech buyer, and the mom was in the lobby because
| they were supposed to go to lunch. I didn't get interest from
| the firm but it was a heck of an experience.
| senko wrote:
| Seconding The Mom Test recommendations. Terrible name,
| incredible book - full of down to earth, actionable advice.
|
| That said, the first step is finding your customers. If you
| can't find them to talk with them, how will you find them to
| sell to them?
| harrisreynolds wrote:
| Following. This is something I've been thinking a lot about with
| WeBase (see https://www.webase.com)
| apples_oranges wrote:
| Can I give you some feedback? I just watched the animation
| under "A database for anyone" and it irritates me that the
| mouse pointer is moving all over before clicking the right
| thing.
| f6v wrote:
| > without spamming HN or reddit
|
| Do you customers spend time there? Then go ahead and ask for
| feedback.
|
| > P.S. A fiverr clone for product owners or analysts might be
| what I'm looking for here.
|
| Cold emails through LinkedIn? Or product owners and analysts your
| friend/former colleagues can introduce you to? Product meet-ups
| are a thing as well (most likely online). You might try talking
| to people and asking for feedback there.
| https://www.meetup.com/topics/product-owners/
|
| > I'm getting ready to use it myself
|
| If that's a fiverr clone, is it sort of marketplace?
| Elof wrote:
| I've had some luck posting on https://www.producthunt.com/ in the
| past
| johnli wrote:
| Shameless plug for the service we built to solve this for
| ourselves - https://www.pickfu.com
|
| The MVP was to meant to replace asking randos at a coffee shop
| about your idea/design/etc. Over time we've added demographic
| targeting, follow-up questions, and other requested features.
| Nowadays online sellers and other creators use it like an online
| focus group to validate ideas and products.
|
| Some other ideas for finding an audience for your MVP:
| - google the exact problem you're trying to solve, reach out to
| authors/bloggers who've written about it - online ads to
| your target demographic - LinkedIn prospecting (if you
| have a target customer profile) - Subreddits of your target
| problem area - Start writing/tweeting about the problem
| space and engage the audience that follows - comments
| section of relevant YouTube videos
| mehphp wrote:
| In general, don't you want to have a potential customer with a
| problem first?
|
| It seems like building a product and then trying to find people
| to validate it is backwards.
| DoreenMichele wrote:
| I run two reddits where self promotion is okay, assuming it's
| relevant to the problem space and not excessively often.
|
| One is r/ClothingStartups. You don't have to be selling clothing
| for it to be okay to pop in and ask for feedback on your product.
| You do need to be able to make a reasonable assertion that you
| think it could be pertinent to early stage, small clothing
| businesses.
|
| The other is r/GigWorks. If you are working on a gig platform of
| some sort, you are welcome to pop in there and talk to folks.
|
| R/ClothingStartups has a few thousand members and regular
| traffic. People actually get feedback there sometimes on the
| stuff they are trying to do (mostly clothing businesses). It's
| growing at around 40 to 60 members per week with little to no
| promotion.
| shiado wrote:
| Discord is actually great for having people test things. Search
| for a server related to what your idea focuses on and get random
| people to test and provide instant feedback.
| arunsivadasan wrote:
| +1 Discord community is quite under utilized. I recently posted
| on a Discord forum where my potential users hang out and it was
| a great experience.
| Abishek_Muthian wrote:
| I faced the same issue and in the end I had to create my own
| problem validation platform - needgap[1].
|
| Problem, not startup idea because; IMO problems are tangible,
| it's something people have right now unlike a startup idea which
| materializes only when it solves the said problem and when enough
| people need it.
|
| So, I created a platform which treats problems as first class
| citizen and new posts are strictly for problem statement. Startup
| ideas to solve those problems can be discussed in the comments
| along with existing solutions for the problem.
|
| Potential customers search with their problem terms on search
| engines and so there's good chance they'll visit a needgap thread
| than a startup idea validation 'landing' page. I've been running
| needgap for nearly 2 years now and several projects have been
| created to solve the problems posted there.
|
| I'm personally starting to get better understanding of the
| grammar of problems and startup ideas with needgap and hope to
| make it a even better validation platform with the help of the
| community.
|
| [1] https://needgap.com
| vuciv1 wrote:
| Maybe this answer isn't scalable, but I personally find that as
| long as _I_ want to use it, I can find other people who want to
| use it.
|
| Typically, posting to reddit and sharing with my friends has been
| helpful.
|
| Also, I recently started a Twitter to try and meet other
| builders, it has been invaluable in terms of support and
| feedback.
| nocommandline wrote:
| I faced/am facing the same 2 issues with
| https://nocommandline.com which is a GUI for Google App Engine
|
| 1) How to find people to validate your idea: I've used Show HN,
| Stackoverflow (I respond to questions about Google App Engine and
| a few other areas), Google Groups forum for GAE. I'm also trying
| Twitter by responding to comments that I feel are related to GAE,
| Cloud hosting, etc - basically any thing that I feel is related
| to the App or just general knowledge that I have that is helpful
| to someone
|
| 2) How to get feedback from users: This is the part that I'm
| struggling with. I have a link on the website for submitting
| bugs, providing feedback, etc. I haven't gotten much feedback
| from it. The windows version of the App had some bugs at the time
| of my ShowHN (I mistakenly exposed the download link for the
| Windows version) and I could see multiple people downloaded it
| but I didn't receive word from anybody saying it wasn't working
| or complaints about it. I have since fixed the bug.
| xsmasher wrote:
| There was a trick in "Four hour work week" - I'm going from
| memory, might not be accurate - where Ferriss would place eBay
| listings for nonexistent products and then cancel the auction
| before it completed; any bidding would indicate real customer
| interest.
|
| You could do something similar with facebook ads. Make ads for
| the finished product, if people click take them to a "Register
| for more info" page. Now you have some email addresses of
| interested people.
|
| This only measures superficial interest in a concept of course;
| it doesn't give feedback on your actual product.
| bellttyler wrote:
| The 4 hour work week is such an awesome book.
| blacktriangle wrote:
| For us, it was trade shows. We did the math: what would we pay
| per person to have them take a look at our software, and how many
| people did we think we'd get to come by our booth at a show? I
| realize this can vary by industry though, in ours a standard
| booth is roughly $1000 which is far more affordable than most. We
| learned a ton and made contact with our first customers who ended
| up being vital in helping us refine our functionality.
| zJayv wrote:
| Rob Fitzpatrick, The Mom Test https://www.amazon.com/Mom-Test-
| customers-business-everyone/...
| bbulkow wrote:
| I have a system for this.
|
| You have two problems, not one. You need to get useful feedback
| out of 100pct of people, and you might need more people.
|
| To get useful feedback, distill your potential value proposition
| to one sentence. If you have multiple ways of saying it, make a
| couple. But one sentence only and write it down.
|
| When you have someone from the correct category (target market)
| on the phone, yes, you need a phone or video call, emit the
| potential value proposition sentence exactly as you have written
| it, not a word different.
|
| Do not do any extra run up other than hi, how much time do you
| have, pleased to meet you...
|
| Then, shut up. This is called 'the golden silence' in sales. and
| write down exactly the first thing they say.
|
| The first thing they say is the truth, and you need to listen to
| it.
|
| after that, you can try to dive in, and they might say they
| didn't understand at first, but the reality is people like to
| please people, and all that subsequent talk is secondary. The
| first reaction is what you bank on.
|
| When you are going to market, you will put ad money, web site
| visits, whatever, into a single sentence, and it must resonate.
| Period. And it must resonate with your target market - you did
| remember to define your target market and potentially do a value
| proposition for each. There are a lot of target markets who don't
| buy the product (investors, influencers), but usually you do that
| only after you believe you have a thesis and resonating message.
| fny wrote:
| > people like to please people
|
| Related, if you can distance yourself from the product. Don't
| be the founder, owner, creator. Act like some other third party
| who is getting feedback.
|
| People often mask criticism, and rarely do people tell someone
| that their baby is ugly. ;)
| arnonejoe wrote:
| The book 'The Mom Test' is all about this.
| jppope wrote:
| - Go through your linkedin/twitter/instagram account. Find people
| who would be interested. Send them an email/message. -
| Search online for thought leaders, industry people that work in
| that specific field. Could be as easy as a twitter search, it
| could be more complex like going through white papers and
| emailing researchers. - There are websites where you can
| request all sorts of feed back including MVP feedback. Fiver has
| a section (https://www.fiverr.com/categories/programming-
| tech/user-testing-services), and there are niche sites
| https://www.usertesting.com/ - Hacker News? - Reddit
| has subs dedicated to that sort of thing:
| https://www.reddit.com/r/websitefeedback/ - Meetups. 2
| different versions. 1) Prepare your elevator pitch and bring your
| phone 2) Message meetup founders and ask them where they would go
| for feedback, since they are thought leaders of sorts. -
| Dischord (mentioned elsewhere) - Just start trying to sell
| it the way that you planned on marketing it (hopefully you've
| thought about your marketing plan)
| staunch wrote:
| How do you "talk to your users"?
|
| 1. By getting "distribution", which means people buying, or
| considering buying, your product or service by visiting your web
| site, taking sales calls, etc.
|
| 2. Then you talk to these people who bought (or didn't buy) your
| product or service about why or why not. This can be via email,
| chat, phone, survey, etc.
|
| How do you get "distribution"?
|
| 1. You buy it with money (ads, etc) if you have the money to do
| so (it's not cheap).
|
| 2. Or you farm for it on someone else's platform (SEO, media
| stories, etc) if you have more time than money.
| [deleted]
| IgorPartola wrote:
| For your project it might be useful to examine where you first
| looked for solutions before deciding to create your own. You want
| to find customers, not just people to give you feedback.
|
| I have also learned the hard way that it's better to start with
| customers and then find the idea to implement that you can sell
| to them than the other way around. I have built way too many
| things that scratched my own itch but nobody else seemed to need
| all that badly.
| everlost wrote:
| Highly recommend Brian's Tacklebox program. It helped me create a
| framework for validating my product idea, while gaining the
| skills (and confidence) for running customer interviews, landing
| page tests, mapping markets, etc.
|
| Obviously, you still need to put in the work to reach out to
| potential users. But the program helps you approach it in a
| structured format.
|
| https://gettacklebox.com/
| btzo wrote:
| It depends a lot on the target audience, but some subreddits also
| have a Slack/Discord channel where you can be more open about
| your intentions and get immediate feedback.
|
| What I like about this model is that if any customer is really
| interested in your product, you can start a video call and
| discuss about it. Also, you can put these people on an email list
| of interested people (with their permission), which can be your
| first cohort.
| ttul wrote:
| Events are another excellent place to find targets to
| interview. For example, if you work in security, go to RSA and
| just bug people in booths or wherever.
| tootie wrote:
| https://first1000.substack.com/
| richardg wrote:
| Very helpful.. I'm trying to get traction for my site too.
| https://nftpedia.co - NFT search and general info
| zhte415 wrote:
| I tend to listen to pain points of friends or even random
| internet comments and seek to fix that, then have an incentive to
| get others.
|
| Nothing huge but provides a living and backup over 9/5 job.
|
| Main problem of asking friends is feedback in the form of "this
| is super" but often not super constructive.
|
| But if it solves two people's problem, then it likely solves more
| than two. And iterate on that. Which can go from payment to
| organisational stubbornness to recognise their pain.
| binarysolo wrote:
| Disclaimer: Non-dev small business owner here; I only MVPed
| offerings that solve a big-enough existing problem of contacts I
| know -- so for me the logical customers to validate are the ones
| with the pain points that I can comfortably access.
|
| For people who are comfortable enough to give you a signup
| already I'd just reach out to them first via a cold+mass email
| and get conversion through numbers.
|
| Once you get that personal connection you just wanna make sure it
| solves their use case; do remember how you solve it for them is
| often times as important as solving it itself.
| 1_over_n wrote:
| I would say ideally wherever they hangout. Figuring that out is a
| big part of the job, next is to find out how to engage with them.
| Going through that process will lead to a lot of learning.
| Figuring out a distribution channel for whatever you are doing is
| essential for getting to market and finding early users will
| inform that process. Read the mom test if you haven't already so
| you have a framework for how to speak to potential users.
| suyash wrote:
| this! if you are not the customer, it's going to be hard to
| build for them. You need to live, breathe like customer
| everyday. Hangout where they are.
| takinola wrote:
| This is actually a very insightful question. You get them the
| same way you plan to get customers after you have built the
| product. If you do not have a way to get customers to test the
| idea, then you do not have a way to get customers after you build
| the product. The process of building an MVP includes the process
| of figuring out distribution.
|
| That said, it depends a lot on what type of product you are
| building. If you are building a consumer product, then throw some
| money at digital ads and drive some traffic towards your idea. If
| people are signing up but not using it, that's feedback right
| there. They are intrigued enough to sign up but find it lacking
| in some way to stick around. Fix one thing and see if that
| changes anything. If it does, great. If not, fix something else.
| Hint on what to fix, think about user engagement in steps. Always
| fix the first possible step that you know is not working. When
| users start crossing that step then go to the next one. Repeat
| until IPO.
| lovedswain wrote:
| > The process of building an MVP includes the process of
| figuring out distribution.
|
| As blindingly obvious as this is, I've never seen it put quite
| so concisely. Fantastic. I could've cut short so many bullshit
| discussions this way
| jasondigitized wrote:
| Never heard it put it that way either but it is so true. I am
| going to add key qualifier for any idea I have: "How
| difficult is it to talk to someone about it?"
| nocommandline wrote:
| >> The process of building an MVP includes the process of
| figuring out distribution. <<
|
| Maybe I'm being picky here but I disagree a little bit with
| this. At the start, your MVP might just have been for you
| i.e. to scratch an itch you have and it is only later that
| you think about getting other people to use/pay for it. So
| maybe your above statement will (should??) apply if your MVP
| was targeted for the public
| hnarn wrote:
| Isn't an MVP, by definition, not just for you?
| nocommandline wrote:
| hmm, good point. I didn't look at it from that POV.
|
| When I'm trying to scratch an itch, I try to get
| something 'rough' and then try to add the bells and
| whistles later on. Mentally, I always think of that
| 'rough' bit as 'my own MVP' i.e. what are the minimum
| features I need to build for this tool to solve my
| problem.
|
| For example I needed a self hosted solution to convert
| svg images to png. I need a way to specify the image to
| be converted, code to convert it, and a place to store
| the output. My first build had a text field where I
| manually enter the path to the svg file I need to
| convert, and I hardcoded the output folder. I thought of
| that as my MVP. When I was sure the code was working and
| much later on when I had the time, I added a file picker
| to allow me pick the input file and another file picker
| for me to specify the output location.
| hnarn wrote:
| The "product" part of MVP refers to something you sell
| (rather, offer) in a market, and the "minimum viable"
| part refers to it being barebones but functional enough
| to be "sellable" and provide value, ie someone that isn't
| you is willing to go through the stated process to
| install and use it. So writing a tool that you use
| yourself without "customers" (used loosely) isn't in my
| mind an MVP, and neither is a product with no thought
| given to distribution.
| bob33212 wrote:
| For anyone reading the above comment and thinking "Well maybe
| for your product, but my product is so great once people see
| it they will buy it"
|
| You are setting yourself up for a hell of a sales problem.
| harrisreynolds wrote:
| I really like the insight about the feedback you are getting
| from crickets (no feedback) and the engagement progression.
|
| Just fix the next step and start with the first step.
|
| Repeat until IPO (Ha!!)
|
| Great comment.
| dahart wrote:
| Very well said.
|
| Will add that from experience, the suggestion of knocking down
| technical issues is so important it's mandatory, and it does
| not stop once you get users, it will be required forever with a
| successful product. BUT! ... IMO it's a very slow way to
| acquire users, and the engagement improvements are incremental
| at best, unless you are making sweeping changes or hit
| something viral (unlikely!!) or were missing something truly
| glaring.
|
| I did a lot of testing between adding features, addressing bug
| fixes, and then random attention-getting marketing like blog
| posts that happen to mention cats or money or other things
| people care more about than software. There was no comparison
| to the amount of attention they got, the tangential posts got
| many, many more people in the door than the technical posts.
| The steady feature improvements are what will keep people
| there, while fluffy emotional blog posts are what will attract
| a lot of window shoppers. It's better if the blog posts are
| relevant to your app and feature announcements, of course, but
| I'm saying you can get users faster without writing software.
| It's just a hard problem and a delicate balance, and don't get
| stuck thinking "if I build it they will come." Some amount of
| marketing is needed. And don't get stuck writing ads or blog
| posts either. Some amount of attention to the software is
| needed. Do as much of both as you can.
|
| It's _very_ difficult to get users to talk, whether they like
| your app or not. Most of the time they don't know enough to be
| able to articulate what they want or need, even though they can
| sense it. And the people that talk loudest aren't often the
| most important to listen to, especially if they're not paying
| for anything.
|
| Good Luck!
| artembugara wrote:
| You should search for potential customers/clients where they
| usually are.
|
| I see many people advise Discord, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc. They're
| all right! But it works for them.
|
| If your potential customers are devs, use Hacker News. However,
| HN won't work if your potential clients are non-devs.
|
| The only right answer (in my opinion) is: "it depends"
| AznHisoka wrote:
| Twitter DMs are such a great resource. Go sign up for a tool like
| BuzzSumo (they got a free trial) and use their Twitter
| influencers search feature to find users that have a specific
| keyword in their bio. Then DM the ones that have DM public, and
| ask for their opinion. Or alternatively, just send them a regular
| message, without trying to spam.
| jordank wrote:
| I routinely recruit highly targeted people for 1-on-1 interviews
| via services like userinterviews.com to help validate concepts.
| These services take care of incentives and scheduling, making
| this process fairly painless.
| montroser wrote:
| We've found userinterviews.com to be fantastic for testing
| usability, and decent for product feedback. You can target
| people by experience and industry, and they are most often
| intelligent humans.
| IvanK_net wrote:
| I think the importance of users feedback and validation is often
| overrated.
|
| If Steve Jobs asked people, if they want a phone with no keyboard
| and just a touchscreen, most of them would say no back then.
| dhosek wrote:
| When I was working for Motorola in 1997, I came up with an idea
| for something very much like the iPhone (although not as good
| and it required a stylus as I was thinking in terms of the
| functionality of the Palm Pilot). But the execution of the
| iPhone was light years ahead of what I dreamt up while working
| at Motorola (and since I was a contractor there, I never shared
| my brilliant idea with anyone who could have put it into
| development anyway). A phone with no keyboard and just a
| touchscreen could have been easily sold before the original
| demo. the difference is that what Apple came up with was far
| beyond what anyone had imagined.
| PostThisTooFast wrote:
| The pub.
| mmukhin wrote:
| Send 200-500 personal cold emails to the person who is the buyer
| of the product.. over the course of 1-2 months. Dont bulk send, 5
| emails take me 30min.
|
| To get emails, ideally find a directory of companies you want to
| solve the problem for, then u can get a trustworthy person on
| Fiverr make u a list of names/companies/emails. I do it 50 at a
| time.
| rawtxapp wrote:
| I think reddit ads are pretty underrated, they are fairly cheap,
| you can target specific subreddits and people in those subreddits
| tend to be passionate about the topic.
|
| If you allow them to comment on the ad itself, you might even get
| more useful feedback in addition to getting users on your mvp
| (there will also be lots of copy-pasta, but it's not too bad).
| dhosek wrote:
| Ooh, I was considering some ad buys to promote the kickstarter
| for the LaTeX book I'm writing. I'd considered advertising on
| tex.stackexchange.com but found that the pricing is closely
| held and apparently in the "if you have to ask, you can't
| afford it" range. Reddit, on the other hand, will let me buy an
| ad starting at $5 and the site I read talked about the $.75/CPM
| and said that the biggest challenge is that for niche products,
| it can be hard to actually get $5 worth of CPM in the time
| frame of the ad since the $5 is per sub-reddit, but this looks
| to be _exactly_ what I want right now.
| tjpnz wrote:
| I'm in a similar boat with the added difficulty of living in
| Japan and having a limited command of Japanese. My intended user
| base would be housewives.
|
| I've got a few bilingual acquaintances I could demo the app to
| but don't want to risk not getting honest feedback. Does anyone
| have any additional points which might help?
| arisAlexis wrote:
| We are building a service where you can get design reviews
| especially for cross cultural situations like this. If you
| don't speak the language I doubt you would nail a design that
| Japanese housewives would relate to. Check it out if you want
| at https://borrowmind.io
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